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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Well, the Republicans finally managed to score points in the only way they know how - the smear. They lied enough, of course with the media's help, to prevent Susan Rice from becoming the next Secretary of State. Now a report from the State Department points a finger at itself. Don't worry it'll come back in an attempt to bite candidate Hillary in the a.. if she indeed runs for president. That's what it's all about, power for the Party.
No word about the other governmental agency who had a major presence in the Bengazi tragedy, the CIA. Oh yes, they were there, a whole houseful of them. The CIA did not stop the attack, predict the attack, or change the situation. You see, that's not what they do. I think there is a good CIA and a bad CIA. Of course neither you or I can PROVE anything beyond a reasonable doubt about the CIA because it's SECRET. It has to be SECRET. They protect us so we allow their secrecy, right? Wrong! Did they protect us from 9/11? Did they play a role in preventing the war in Iraq - that morally bankrupt war that, I think, was designed to bankrupt the nation? Did they provide any SECRET guidance that has led to success in Afghanistan? No, and why not? Is it just because the bad CIA is dominant? Well, that doesn't hurt their incompetence, but I put to you that the very concept of an on-going SECRET agency is anathema to any free democracy. Remember that the CIA and the NSA and their ilk were created at the end of WWII from the war-time secret agencies, created indeed at the most secure moment for America in the entire 20th century. No country in the world could challenge the U.S. at that moment and yet the populace allowed its government to expand in a manner that began all the self-fulfilling prophecies that have led us to believe we can't do without their continual dominance. They became more powerful than the Presidency in November of 1963 and have grown ever since. They create murder and mayhem on such a scale that we may never truly be safe again.
And the CIA did nothing to prevent the Bengazi attack, but bear no blame because no one is safe from them. They worked with the Mafia in the 60's; what makes you think they don't work with the Mafia today? Indeed, we have allowed the creation of private SECRECY companies to work the famous "dark side." So, now the link between money and SECRECY is out in front of us. Who can be surprised that Blackwater, by whatever name, left the U.S.? They are a criminal enterprise who wrongly thought they might get caught except that no one dares go after them. No, they are now based in an oil-rich Arab country and remain available to work the dark sides for them too.
Why did we fall prey to uncontrollable SECRECY at the time of the greatest strength our nation ever had? Simple, they wrapped themselves in the flag. And now that they, and American politics, are wrapped in both the flag and the Bible they think they are untouchable. Are they? Only as long as We the People behave like sheep who have gone astray. The government will not do this for us. If a politician or public figure was powerful enough to threaten them they have two routes to go. One, they discredit that person until s/he loses all credibility, or two, they kill them. This is only one major reason why our nation's dependence on "the President" is wrong-headed. No President since Dwight David Eisenhower will ever be again be powerful enough to stop them. And he tried to rally the People to stop the Military/Industrial Complex, but we didn't heed him.
Now we must add SECRECY to the complex: the Military/Industrial/SECRECY Complex is not on our side. They are on their own side. They flourish only as long as We the People allow perpetual war and fear to dominate. They are on the side of the 1%. They are mostly on the Republican side, but have the Democrats effectively bottled up. And the wealth and power of the 1% are now tied to international big money in such a way that putting America first is a near impossibility. Peace would mean their demise. Evil must be turned around so our children can live. We must have a nonviolent orange-style revolution in America and it can't come from the top down. Those at the top are either part of the problem or their hands are tied. The two-party system in the U.S. cannot live without them and is becoming ever more entrenched. The two-party system will never fix America. The Republicans want a country with a federal government that does nothing except fight wars and perpetuate SECRECY. The Democrats try to do this and that without the nerve to tell us that the best way America could save money is to shrink the Military/Industrial/SECRECY Complex. They will forever be liable to the notion that they are the big wasteful party of spenders because they want to have both guns and butter. Lyndon Johnson couldn't do it and he had more control of his party than Obama.
And who, I ask you was the only candidate during our last presidential election cycle who spoke out about these issues and the "blowback" they create? You know, the one who said we should treat other countries the way we wish to be treated? (Sounds like, and is, another way to quote Jesus Christ.) And where was the audience who laughed aloud when he said it? Why it was Ron Paul in North Carolina, the Republican/Bible Belt!
We need Ron Paul's voice in the national debate. We need his Campaign for Liberty to leave the Republican Party because it cannot be reformed any more than the Democratic Party can. Left and Right mean nothing anymore. There is a Wheel of Life and if you travel far enough in any direction you will meet your opposite. While I do not support all Ron Paul stands for, he who confronts my biggest enemy is my friend! Applied common sense on the Wheel of Political Life would show that there is a great commonality between two apparent opposites, both of whom are capable of speaking great truths - Ron Paul and Jim Hightower! I'd like to see that debate in the open sunshine of true Democracy!!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

I keep hearing people
quoting, whether knowingly or unknowingly, a great Jimmy Dale Gilmore song
about facing the inevitability of death: “And you might as well choose right
now, it’s love or fear.” Who will you travel with? he asks. Politics is the
context of those I’ve heard say that lately.

Reading the news that Obama has
relented on his reelection promises to increase taxes on all Americans who earn
over $250,000.00 a year AND to leave Social Security alone was a shock.
Listening to one of my favorite radio shows, the Stephanie Miller Show, I heard
her say once again that “Obama plays chess, the Republicans play checkers.” I
too have been an Obama apologist, but no more, even if he is playing some kind
of chess. I can’t support a chess game that involves lying to me. And if he
wins, for whom has he won? The Democratic Party, I assume. I am 62, so what
does the Democratic Party mean to me now? It is the party that actively encouraged
and participated in the cover-up of JFK’s assassination, and that, I now think,
was the end of America-as-we-thought-it-was. It is the party that supported two
hugely expensive and wrong-headed (in blood and treasure) wars: Viet Nam and
Iraq. Those are just the biggest examples of misguided military actions
supported by Democrats. It is also the party that gave me Social Security and,
soon maybe, Medicare. I say gave me, but of course, I paid in to these
insurance policies. Thank God, it was the party that eventually cooperated with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. It is the party that has capitulated on environmental progress, the party that cooperated with Republicans to establish a fascist
world-wide “free trade” umbrella. It is the party that lost, temporarily, Ted
Kennedy’s Senate seat! Ok, it’s too depressing to go on. The hope offered by
Obama is now proven to be a change too far – too far to prove real.

I will not go off on the
Republican Party in this blog. I am not and never was a Republican although I
once thought John McCain offered hope and voted to reelect him as a Senator in
the 1980s.

So, here’s where I am at: I
could never be a Republican and now, I won’t be a Democrat either unless an
almost impossible thing happens. That would be that the Democrats in Congress,
en mass, oppose Obama’s stance and force him back to his campaign promises. He
would thank you for it as would all of us who voted him in. The continued
growth of Presidential power in America must end. The Congress must take back
its Constitutional powers. No more wars without a Congressional declaration of
War. No more compromises on core Democratic values such as Social Security. The
Military/Industrial and now, /Secrecy Complex must be confronted and unfunded,
leaving a true civilian-led military that is lean and mean, and then TAKES
PROPER CARE of its soldiers. The dangerous Supreme Court decision that
corporations are people must be debunked.

Oh yeah, there’s more, but on to
my main point. George Carlin was right. America is a club and you and I don’t
belong. So, what to do? Well, the radical idea that Americans are going to
overthrow the government by force is so ludicrous I won’t even go there. That
is the sick underpinning of the Republican Party! The complacent idea that ONE
person, the President, has the power to fix America’s ills is actually a plea
for dictatorship which will never be benign. It is un-American to the core. The
thought that you go vote and things will be made right your way is delusional
unless you have contributed somewhere around $100,000.00 dollars to one of the
two parties. I disagree with George Carlin on refusing to vote. That’s the ONLY
thing we have, and that only when we overwhelm voter suppression and fraud with
huge numbers.

So, I’m going to vote, but with
a big difference. I’m going to ALWAYS vote third party in elections. In
primaries where there is no third party on the ballot I will vote for the
Democrat I like best and if I don’t like any, I’ll, I'll...hell I'll decide in the voting booth. I could vote for Ron Paul in the same way I have voted for Democrats - on balance, if his policies were implemented in a way undiluted by Republicans (big if) America and the world would be better off than having a Republican in office. To be specific, we'd shrink the Pentagon and Secrecy organizations and keep our military ready, but at home. Peace might be allowed to break out! But I won’t
vote, as one young man I know, for Mickey Mouse. It's not a joke, it's the fate of our species! Our vote is our last best hope
and continuing to vote for a Democratic Party that will not become as liberal
as its base is a losing proposition. Most have either been bought out or scared
out, and I don’t doubt that, for some, the fear is reality-based. For others,
it’s merely a fear of losing elections. Let’s make ‘em shiver. You’re too old
to be in our nest, we’re pushing you out. Straighten up and fly right. (No pun
intended.)

postscript: I can think of lot's of counter arguments and expansion and explanations, but I'll do that only if there are comments made.